Field of the Disclosure
The present application relates generally to information storage devices and more particularly to a bit storage device with improved security.
Background of the Disclosure
Digital semiconductor devices typically rely on key storage elements which hold important decision criteria. This might be a flag signaling ‘device secured’ or ‘functionality locked’ or any kind of similar information that is of key importance for a secure system. There might be only one, a few or several dozens of such items, but in any case the protection of those values must be a prime concern for any system implementing security aspects. If this cannot be accomplished, any other security mechanism will fall short, because those values will be the first point of attack for any attempt to break the device security.
Protection of such values has evolved gradually as flaws have been discovered and exploited and techniques have been developed to address those flaws, typically on an ad hoc basis. The lack of a robust solution has allowed the cycle to be perpetuated.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.